IDW Publishing announced the four-issue miniseries at WonderCon in Anaheim yesterday.

"It's a big responsibility and I don't take it lightly at all," Waid told Newsarama.

"All I can tell you is that as someone who bought all the original Rocketeer comics as they came out and read them until they fell apart, every page of [Dave Stevens]'s work is burned into my brain and we intend to come at Rocketeer with the same sense of respect and honor that Dave himself showed to his forebears."

Stevens created the jetpack-propelled superhero Cliff Secord in 1982 as a homage to the movie matinee icons of the '30s and '40s.

"As the Rocketeer, Cliff's dealing with two arch-nemeses set to strike the West Coast with a cargo of terror they've crated in from a place quite familiar to movie historians," Waid continued.

"While this is going on, Cliff has another set of problems to deal with. The end of the 1930s saw the beginnings of the Federal Aviation Administration and the start of a great deal more regulation of free-wheeling airmen like Cliff - who, if he doesn't learn to control his temper, may find himself permanently grounded in red tape."